Raleigh, NC (PRWEB) August 23, 2014

A team of New York researchers say the cancer-fighting effects of IMRT for mesothelioma last longer when preceded by surgery and delivered by an experienced team. Surviving Mesothelioma has just posted an article on the new study. Click here to read it now.

Doctors at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center studied the cases of mesothelioma patients who underwent hemithoracic (one side of the chest) IMRT, a technique for conforming radiotherapy dose to the shape of a tumor. Patients who had surgery first and were at an experienced institution were less likely to see cancer return at the margins of the treatment area.

“Increasing experience and improvement in target delineation minimize the incidence of avoidable marginal failures,” writes lead study author Andreas Rimner, MD.

The study, published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics, included 67 patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma. In most cases, cancer returned inside the treated area.

“IMRT is a very specialized treatment that requires a high degree of expertise to get the full benefit,” says Alex Strauss, Managing Editor of Surviving Mesothelioma. “These results suggest that mesothelioma patients considering this therapy would do well to find a center with the highest level of experience with the technique.”

For the details of the study results, including survival rates of the participating mesothelioma patients, see IMRT for Mesothelioma: Experience Impacts Outcomes, now available on the Surviving Mesothelioma website.

Rimner, A et al, “Failure Patterns After Hemithoracic Pleural Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy for Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma”, July 26, 2014, International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics, Epub ahead of print, http://www.redjournal.org/article/S0360-3016(14)00681-6/abstract.

For nearly ten years, Surviving Mesothelioma has brought readers the most important and ground-breaking news on the causes, diagnosis and treatment of mesothelioma. All Surviving Mesothelioma news is gathered and reported directly from the peer-reviewed medical literature. Written for patients and their loved ones, Surviving Mesothelioma news helps families make more informed decisions.

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